ESPN reporting that Georgia looking at Rick Pitino
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thebiglead.com/2018/03/11/jay-williams-is-…
It is ESPN and quite possibly click bait but there are enough people talking about it is worth posting. This would put the nail in the coffin for those who hoped the FBI probe would have a lasting impact on the sport.
Time for players to be able to profit on their name and likeness.
March 12th, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^
the PWO path if that allows them to work without restrictions.
Here is my real question? Why do you have a problem with these kids making money?
Would you have a problem with a Michigan bioengineering student getting a $10k p.m. salary to work at Pfizer during the summer? Deloitte paid me $4k per month during my internship while I was at the Michigan B-School in the mid-90s, nobody had a problem with it. In fact, Michigan used to promote the % of students getting internships as part of its marketing and I am sure they still do.
Why shouldn't football players have the same rights as other students? Players accept the current system because they hope to make the NFL and don't want to be seen as troublemakers.
I never said that the student athletes should be prohibited from earning money outside of the university (or, more accurately, outside of their sport programs)- in my last post I explicitly stated that PWOs should be allowed to work side jobs just as any other non-scholarship student athletes (who vastly outnumber scholarship athletes across all sports). The issue of contention is primarily w.r.t. scholarship athletes, who are already being compensated for their time and effort via tuition, room/board, tutoring services, educational supplies (not sure if these are all available across the board, but I believe this is true for the "blue chip" scholarship athletes) and other fringe benefits - not to mention the actual monetary stipend that they are now allowed to receive. Personally, I have no fundamental reservation with allowing them to work a side job if they believe they have the time and can manage it in addition to school and sport responsibilities (didn't Mo Hurst moonlight as an Uber driver?). However, one could easily envision how that could be abused by setting up ghost positions for favored student athletes, which is likely why the ncaa restrcits it to some extent (I'm not sure what the exact rules are governing that). Since this is all voluntary school activity, the students can choose to participate or not knowing in advance about these restrictions. However, they do not require any further compensation for school sport participation. Honestly, I would rather schools completely do away with athletic scholarships and have them based only on a combination of academic merit AND socioeconomic need (scholarships which can be greatly expanded in number and scope by using the revenue generated by the games). This would certainly alter the dynamic of college football, but I still believe that most college fans go to watch their schools since they have some connection to it (alums, family/friends, staff, locals, etc.) and not as much for the quality of the play. Doing away with athletic scholarships would also immediately hyperinflate demand for a professional midlevel football league, while allowing kids to choose to play for their schools (and still get a possible free education if their families cannot cover the cost) if they want to go that route.
Ok - that is a gross exaggeration but it would certainly mean the end of college football as a spectacle- it would be something closer to what college baseball looks like today.
I am a huge fan (obviously) so I wouldn’t want to see that. Too much tradition and memories and emotional capital invested by me.
Look at some of the lower tier conferences and teams (ND State, service academies, MAC, Ivy, etc.) - people still watch their games in droves in the stadiums. They get overlooked by the networks, but keep in mind that not to long ago even teams like UM would only get 1-2 games televised per season. Unlike NFL, college football was not created to make money, but basically as a fun activity for students to play and other students and alum to watch. Despite the commercialization and arms race at the top these days, I believe this is still true at the core. So yes, I (and others) would watch non-optimal athletes play other non-optimal athletes from rival schools in a rock fight and cheer to beat them silly (the M00N game was nationally televised and that was with many NFL-bound players).